Our Family Project

This last week has been quite an eye opener for me.  I never realized how hard and traumatic our moving experience was for our family ... until recently. I spoke in church on Sunday and used an example of a question Adam once asked Jon after we moved into our house as an introduction to my topic ... sort of.  Anyway, it was as I was preparing that I realized that our children/family have been yanked back and forth so much in the last year. Adam's question was: "Do we get to stay here?" It was after Jon told me about Adam's question that I realized that our children have been deeply affected by our move.  10+ months of limbo will do that to you. The affects have been most apparent in Andrew.  His behavior has changed so much since we moved out here.  He has started to throw up a wall everytime he gets upset.  Sometimes that wall is so thick we can't break it down and have to walk away in frustration.  When he gets upset, he simply sits, lookin...

Our backyard is unfinished. When we talked about moving years ago, one of the things Jon wanted was a finished yard because we had to finish our yard in Minnesota and it was a much larger task than we thought it would be.  But, our new house has an unfinished backyard and we will get to do the process all over again.  I am kind of excited about deciding where we want the garden and future playset.  Meanwhile, it is a digging ground for the children.  It's so nice to send Maryanne and Andrew out into the backyard and know that they are probably not into anything (unless you can count the water spout), just enjoying the opportunity to dig. For Valentine's Day we gave the children a box of sidewalk chalk.  It wasn't anything grand, but something they have been missing for over a year.  When we were in the apartment, there wasn't anywhere for them to use sidewalk chalk.  And, now that we are in our house, we have a patio that runs the entire width of th...

The other day, I was perusing one of my favorite crafting blogs, and was hit with a brick.  I'd been trying to come up with an idea for something for the children to give to their teachers for Valentine's Day, when I saw this craft blogger post about Valentine gift pouches .  The thought had never occurred to me, until then, to make my reusable sandwich bags for their teachers and fill them with treats. So, I did.  And, I think they are so cute.  The children picked out the fabric, and then wrote their names (the girls did a little doodling).  Then, I sewed them together.  I was going to guide Eliza and Kate through the sewing process, but then got carried away and just ended up sewing theirs.  Oh well, they can help me fill an order for Andrew's teacher (who, along with another teacher, wants me to make her some - photos coming soon).

Maryanne was helping me in the kitchen the other day.  She started to make this face whenever she did something for me.  It reminded me so much of my grandmother, I had to take a picture.  Whenever my grandmother was sewing, or sometimes when we played games, she would stick out her bottom lip, just like this.  I think it is adorable ... yes, even on my grandmother.

This girl is so creative.  She turned the garbage can into her own little desk one morning.  We'd worked on a shape book the day before, and when I went downstairs the next day, she had pushed the stool over to the garbage can so she could draw some more in her book.  Her shape book is one of my favorite things we've done recently.  Adam, Maryanne and I sat down at the kitchen table with a big stack of construction paper and started to create.  I folded Maryanne's white paper in such a way that it actually turns pages like a book.  Then, I decided to put a different colored shape on each page.  Adam helped me to remember all of the shapes.  And, M glued them down on the pages.  Then, I followed through writing the word of the shape in a matching color, and numbered and lettered the shapes.  Meanwhile, Adam made his own little book.  It was a fun day.  I need to write more about the fun learning things we do to keep me motivat...

In 2004, we decided to homeschool our children.  We came to this decision after talking to many, many homeschoolers that we met at church, and because the children who were homeschooled were much better behaved and could converse with adults much better than the public-schooled children.  We researched homeschooling and realized that it only takes up a fraction of the time that our children would spend in a public school, and they learn much faster and better because of the one-on-one environment.  That, coupled with the fact that we could decide what they were learning, really solidified our resolve to homeschool. The year that Eliza turned five I started to collect homeschool resources.  I looked online and found many, many blogs about homeschooling, and many homeschool resource stores.  One of our goals with homeschooling was to incorporate the Gospel of Jesus Christ into everything taught.  During my research online, I found a website called: Latter-...

We found the dress up clothes a week or so ago.  I posted these photos on Facebook, so they aren't a surprise to most of you, my friends and family.  The story behind it, is this: Upon opening the box of dress up clothes, I saw many, many items which I made in the past.  This one item stood out to me.  I think it's because I never took a picture of it when Adam wore it for Halloween in 2009.  This cape was originally going to be green on the outside with a black lining.  I cut out all the pieces for the cape when I cut out everyone's costumes last year (I made almost everyone's costumes ... two of four consisted of capes which made it easy), then set the fabric aside.  Adam decided to be "helpful" and cut the green fabric in several places.  So, I improvised.  Instead of a cape with a lining, I rounded off the places he had cut and ironed them under about a 1/2-inch.  Then, I sewed the green and black together so that it looked like ...

Last April we moved from one apartment to another.  Eliza's birthday just happened to come shortly after we moved into our second apartment.  She requested an angel food cake for her birthday.  At the time, we moved everything that had been in storage while we were in corporate housing right back into a storage garage.  Because I don't make angel food cakes very often, I packed away my angel food cake pan ... and consequently, it went into the storage garage somewhere.  I had no idea where it was.  So, Eliza's birthday came and went without a birthday cake.  Silly me.  I told her that I would make her a cake later ... a fancy cake. Well, this cake isn't very fancy ... no where nearly as fancy as the cake I had planned in my head (which was covered in a bright pink fondant with piano keys running around the bottom of the cake).  But, I decided I better make her a cake and decorate it (I know there's very little decorating, but it's better th...

 I have been on a little "computer strike" this last month.  Not quite sure how that happened.  All I know is that I haven't had the desire to sit down at the computer much.  Maybe that's the curse of my iPhone ... I can still check my email and even surf the internet on there instead of sitting at the computer. Amid all of the chaos of our move, I did not take any pictures ... even though I meant to.  And, the only thing I did to document what our house looks like, is record a little video tour on my phone right before we left to go to Utah.  Expressly for the purpose of showing my family. This last month we have been busy, and not so busy.  I have worked hard, and then been a little bit lazy.  So, there are no new photos of our new house.  Except what you'll see in this and the next two posts I plan on writing soon.  Maybe one day I will get around to taking pictures ... maybe after we have finished all the cleaning.  (I'm sti...